ORIGINAL: cmoulder
ORIGINAL: MTK
And BTW. the simplest way to cut the squares on the stand off bases is with a belt sander since I don't have access to an end mill
Matt
Ha! I live in a condo and have no shop tools, but I figure out a way to do stuff with a DeWalt drill, a couple of Dremels and the little Dremel drill press, sanding blocks, razor saws, and... um... that's about it! Already I have figured out a work-around for making the ply discs and a clean, level cut of the balsa dount using the hand drill, a bolt and 2 nuts and a razor saw. The order of construction will have to be modified a bit, but it will absolutely work.
Your photo depicts what I had in mind, so I'm on the right track. Seems you have about 2.5 deg right thrust?
Hmm... looks as if your new design has a canalizer. Craftsmanship looks excellent. I hope to see the final product in person next season!
Bob,
I understand. I don't have much either but do find the small band saw from Craftsman pretty valuable. Also have a small drill press from Harbor Freight. The rest are hand tools. After you cut the balsa spacer in half you may want to sand the faces flat first. The simple way to do that is placing sandpaper on a small piece of glass, say 1 foot square, and just run the balsa onto the glass. But it isn't terribly critical to get the faces perfectly. I just do that as a matter of course
Not a canalizer as much as SASSI (spiral air stream straightening initiator) ....a lot to say. The canards surfaces are right behind the prop. Simply put, it's designed to initiate straightening the prop blast. My theory is that a straighter air stream right off will require minimal off set of thrust. Forget about P-factor and all that nonsense about why we need right thrust on out planes. It is the spiralling slip stream that causes all kinds of havoc with the flying quality of the model. I built in about 1 degree of right and zero down
It was a revelation to me when I calculated the amount of air mass that gets thrown back in seconds of running. Air weighs a ton. The reactive force that gets generated from all that mass hitting the fuse side at an oblique angle is what causes the veering off tract. Also the difference in roll left and right. Also the pitching at knife edge.
It's another experiment that showed promise in foamies so I decided to try a larger platform. It's only 20 square inches but it is located at a difficult place for other maneuvers such as snap rolls, spins etc. So I made the canards removable just in case. I could have made them work in conjunction with elevator but these are fixed for now. I may change my mind after flying the crate for the first time and make them movable.
Matt